2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE PREMIUM SPONSOR Paul Hastings LLP

Over the past few decades, Paul Hastings has grown from a mid-market U.S. firm to an international outfit with strengths in employment, tax, and business law and big-name clients in more than 80 countries. With offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo, the firm has grown especially strong in Asian market dealings.

It Started with Three

In 1951, Harvard law grads Bob Hastings, Lee Paul, and Leonard Janofsky pooled their ambitious efforts to form a new firm in Los Angeles. They divided the workload three ways: Janofsky handled employment law matters, Paul dealt with litigation, and Hastings managed business law. In 1962, Charles Walker joined the trio as a partner, adding his name to the masthead and establishing a tax practice. Walker took a brief sojourn from the firm in the 1970s to accept a position in the Ford administration as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy but soon returned to his tax work at the firm. The firm grew organically over the following few decades—rather than merging or acquiring other firms—and now operates in Asia and the United Kingdom.

Doing It All

Paul Hastings is a premier global law firm with elite teams in finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and litigation dedicated to serving the world’s leading Wall Street and global investment banks, asset managers, and corporations. It is one of a handful of law firms ranked across multiple core finance areas, including structured credit, leveraged finance, private credit, capital markets, and real estate finance. It is one of the top firms in the world, earning a spot in The American Lawyer’s Premier League because of its momentum, profit, and prestige among firms in the 2022 American Lawyer 100.

The firm has a bustling transactional practice with more than 450 lawyers across the globe counseling on M&A, private equity, venture capital, and much more. The firm’s client list spans more than a dozen industries, including aircraft finance and leasing, energy, development and construction, healthcare, franchise and distribution, government affairs, hotels and resorts, investment management, real estate, life sciences, IT and eCommerce, OSHA, sports, telecommunications and media, and securities finance and capital markets. To keep up with client demands during the global financial crisis, Paul Hastings also established a Subprime Mortgage and Credit Crisis practice area, focusing on bankruptcy and restructuring, regulatory matters, litigation and investigations, and government advisory services.

Another notable practice is Employment Law. The firm regularly appears among the top 10 firms in Vault’s Labor & Employment ranking and is the only firm to have been named twice as The American Lawyer’s Labor and Employment Litigation Law Firm of the Year. The firm’s specialties include employee benefits and ERISA, employment discrimination, international employment issues, labor management, and restrictive covenants. Lastly, the firm has established a significant real estate practice. The firm takes a cross-disciplinary approach to real estate work. Lawyers in the real estate practice area work together with the firm’s Corporate, Securitization and Structured Finance, and Tax Teams to assist with all aspects of a real estate transaction. The firm is in the top 10 of Vault Law’s Real Estate rankings.

Feeling Generous

Many firms give back through pro bono work, but Paul Hastings takes it a step further with its generous charitable giving. In the past year alone, the firm has donated to more than 140 charitable organizations. Moreover, the firm matches up to $2,500 in charitable donations per each employee every year.

• #1 on The American Lawyer Summer Associate Survey (2023)
• Top 10 The American Lawyer Mid-Level Associate Satisfaction Survey (2023)
• 13 Years in a row Recognized on The American Lawyer’s A-List
• Top 10 Best Law Firms to Work For according to Vault (2023)
• #8 Best Law Firm for Diversity according to Vault (2023)